Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Scientific Tafsir of Surah Al-Ikhlas

Sura Al-Ikhlas forcefully and eloquently proclaims “The absolute Singularity of Allah”, the very Primordial characteristics of the Creator of the Universes. This is the fundamental teaching of Islam and has been the focal point of teachings of all the earlier Prophets of Allah. The absolute reality of everything rests upon the principle of the Unity of the Creator. In view of its importance, the Messenger of Allah (Sallallaho Alaihay Wa-Aalayhe Wasallam) said,“By Him, in whose hand is my soul, Sura Al-Ikhlas is equal to one third of the Quran”. He who recites this sura with love and faith in the unity of Allah, the Messenger of Allah (Sallallaho Alaihay Wa-Aalayhe Wasallam) said, “Tell him Allah loves him [1].Beliefs in duality, trinity or multiplicity of gods and making His images or idols or assigning God-likes reverence to any one besides Him are the priestly innovations and have no truth at all. The pinnacle point of the teachings of Moses and Jesus was also pure and simple monotheism. They all preached the absolute Oneness of the Creator of Universe, denying any types of partners to Him. Thus said Jesus,“Cursed is every one who shall insert into my saying that I am the Son of God”.[2] Further he said,“Ye may perceive your sin: for I am a visible man and a morsel of clay that walked upon the earth, mortal as are other men. And I have a beginning and shall have an end, and (am) such that cannot create a fly ever again”.[3]It is heartening to note that there are many Christians now who no longer take the concept of trinity seriously and believe in One God only. Insistence on the rigid secularism in the West is also because rationality does not justify the concept of a material son of a pure Spiritual Being. Thus instead of believing in this philosophy they find it easier to reject religion altogether.

EXPLANATION GRAND SINGULARITY

Sura begins with the forceful call of “QUL”. This is the order from Creator of the universes to pronounce and proclaim with full faith before whole of the world, with all available means, without any doubt:قل هو الله احد“There is only One and the Only One God. He is Allah.”This is the greatest truth of all. Basis of all scientific laws, the Alfa and Omega of every creation. Whole universe proclaims it and everything in it is witness to the Creator’s absolute Singularity. Concept of the polytheism is the product of the weakness of feeble men, that in fear or in love, they made gods for them out of every thing. That challenged their imagination. When they see that even the most autocratic monarchs depend for their power on family ties and confederates, they fall in doubt about the unity of the Lord of the universe also. Thus under their psychics misgivings, they assign partners and family to the Creator of the Universe also. Whereas the absoluteness of scientific laws in the universe call upon every true seeker of truth that their cannot be but the only one Creator. You may call Him Grand Singularity, or give Him any other name, He is the same God who over rides the Time-Space Continuum. He is Allah!

ABSOLUTE CAUSE VERSUS CHAIN OF CAUSES AND EFFECTS

To understand this great truth let us reflect into the working of the chain of Cause and Effect. Every cause creates some effects which become cause for the subsequence events. So there is a chain of causes and effects; Events have thus continued multiplying since the beginning. If one Cause on the average gives birth to two effects then chain reaction of events may look as seen in the figure given herein.[4]

Today, Universe as seen by the science is composed of trillium of trillions of galaxies with each galaxy having incomprehensible number of stars and planets. But down in the time, fifteen to twenty billion years ago all this was one unit mass of zero volume, believed to have begun with a Big Bang out of “Nothingness”. According to the scientists even Time and Space did not exist before Big Bang. Then who could be the first cause? Answer is only One – He is ALLAH The Absolute – Reality. He is the Primordial source Head of Time and Space, which are the two essential inputs for any happening. Thus He is every where, in bed out of everything. He knows everything, controls everything, creates everything. He is up and down, Past, Present and Future at the same instant. He is at every point of space – time continuum. He has introduced Himself in the Quran:هوالاول والاخر والظاهروالباطن وهوعلى كل شي عليمHe is the First, He is the Last, He is the outermost, He is the Inner Most. He has the absolute knowledge of every thing.Since the First and the Last relate to Time domain; where outermost and liner most relate to the space domain, Space – Time continuum is the characteristics of His own persmality. Nothing can happen without His leave.[5]

As for the universe, where was it before the Big Bang? Who caused it to appear? Who regulate it? Who gave it design and shape? Who holds it? Why are there laws of science? Answer to all these question exist in the Infinity of the Creator. You know mathematics fail there in. For example, if you go on adding billion of infinities answer will still be infinity or you divide the infinity by any number answer will remain the same. The great scientist Einstein proved that scientific laws are the same in every nook and corner of Time - Space continuum. Thus universe is the primary witness of the Absolute Singularity of the Creator. It is there because it has only one creator everywhere.

PRIMAL FORCE

Modern developments in Mathematics and Physics and (life sciences) are also coming as witness to the Unity of the Creator in their own way. They see that multiplicity in the scientific laws is actually different ways of the working of a Singular Primal Force. Presently science has known that universe is held together by a combination of four fundamental forces of Nature. These are:-1) Electromagnetism (on which depend the entire communication system, electrical gadgets and light emitted from the sun and stars); etc2) Nuclear Strong forces3) Nuclear weak forces (which give stability to the atom and therefore things exist).4) Gravitational Force through which all the atoms in the universe are interconnected and which keeps balance between heavenly bodies.Going deeper scientists visualize that even these four forces may actually be the manifestation of a Single Absolute Force. Scientist Abdus-Salam and Weinbergh proved in their Noble Prize winning work that Strong Nuclear and Weak Nuclear Forces are actually two shades of the Single Nuclear Force. Similar to this reasoning all scientific laws are also thought to converge into a Grand singularity i.e. Grand Theory of every Thing. Thus science over its long history is seen converging from multiplicity to singularity and emerging as the principle witness of the absolute Oneness of the Creator, the Alpha and Omega the Primal Cause, The Time – Space Continuum, The Ever Living …ALLAH.

INFINITY AND THE UNDERSTANDING THE WORKING OF ALLAH

We have already referred to the fact that in Mathematics there is a quantity called infinity. This is the limit of Mathematics, logic and science. It is indivisible, unimaginable, limitless value where all the laws of science break. For example, you add a billion million infinities, but the total will remain the same one infinity, or you multiply millions of infinities answer will be again one infinity. It is not subject to physical laws either. For example, circle of an infinite radius can be assigned infinite centers in it. It has no boundary but infinite boundaries exist in it. Concept of Allah in Islam is also of an Infinite being, like whom there is none.

He surrounds the universe as a whole and at the same time, every single atomic particle also. ( للهاو ٌيش لكب طيحم ) If mathematics cannot comprehend infinity, how can any one comprehend the Infiniteness of the Absolute Reality of the Creator of everything? If you cannot divide infinity into two or three, how can you believe in the duality or Trinity in the Infinity of Allah? Where is the room for Father, Mother and Son in His Oneness? He is the First before whom there is no first, He is the Last after whom there is no last, He is the Outermost, out of which exists nothing, He is the Inner Most beyond which nothing exists, ( هولاول والاخر والظاهرواللباطن ) and He is fully aware of everything.

THE ABSOLUTE REALITY AND ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY

The next verse of Sura Ikhlas smashes all false motions about Allah Subhanahu by declaring,الله الصمدThe word Samad ( صمد ) means the one on who is totally Self Sufficient, who is indeperdent of all, all are dependent on Him; and He depends on no one for His existence, The Indivisible, The Everlasting refuge, The actual Arabic word “Assamad” has the root word ‘Sammad’ meaning an unbreakable insurmountable rock behind which people take refuge in war. Addition of the word Al gives it the meaning of absoluteness. Thus the word Assamad represent the special Name of Allah, meaning the one who is Absolute, Undefeatable. Imperishable, Indivisible, Strongest, The Everlasting Refuge for every one. He must stand alone within and outside His creations with the Absolute, Imperishable, Indivisible Authority He is Assamad (الصمد).

SOLE AUTHORITY – NEITHER BEGOTTEN, NOR BEGETS Infiniteness and Absoluteness of Allah automatically means that He shares His authority with none, neither He depends for it on any one. This is calarified by the verse 3 of the sura Akhlas, which says;لم يلد ولم يولدHe begets not and, nor is He begotten. He has no child nor is He child of any one.This makes it clear that there is no linage of gods. In fact there is no place for any thing like this in the Infinity of His Singularity. To assign partners or linage to Infinity is simply, absurd and an abhorable idea for science and mathematics; and unforgivable sin in religion, the greatest lie in ethics, and total denial of wisdom and rationality. Thus even metaphorically words like “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” are wrong to utter in respect of Allah. The crux of Theory of Relativity and the greatest discovery of Einstein was that laws of science are universally true which speak out that there must be the same Creator everywhere? If He had father or son or other relatives or partners, it implies that universe would have been changing hands resulting into, disorder and chaos. But farts speak contrary to that.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE

The last Aya of this great Sura talks about the very Nature of our Creator. It says,ولم يكن له كفوا احدAnd there is absolutely none like unto Him.He is unique in all respects. As there is nothing like unto Him in the Universe, we have no reference to describe Him. Universe is fundamentally made of energy, matter and vacuum. He is composed of neither of them. The universe to which we belong is four dimensional i.e., Length, Width, Height and Time. If there is any more dimensions we cannot describe them in terms of these four. Since knowledge of human beings is only relative to the known things, therefore, nature of Allah cannot be described in terms of any known things, available words, symbols or expressions. Thus He will always remain beyond the comprehension of human beings. We have no words to describe Him, no ears to hear Him, no eyes to see Him, and no brains to understand Him. The only means with which we may feel Him is our Qulab, (Mind Force), Thus painting His pictures, or making His idols is unforgivable insult against His Holliness. We can feel the presence of the Creator through His creations only but cannot comprehend Him by our wisdom. It is just like a fish floating in the middle of a vast ocean. Water surrounds it from its inside outside, but ocean will remain incomprehensible to it always. Similarly, we may imagine Allah surrounding us, every cell of us, from inside to outside but we have no brains to describe His Infinite Being. “A subset cannot comprehend the superset, say mathematics”.

It is narrated by Abu Hurairah (Razi Allah Anho) Allah’s Messenger (Sallallaho Alaihay Wa-Aalayhe Wasallam) told;“Allah says,“The son of Adam tells a lie against Me, he has not the right to do so; and he abuses Me, and he has not the right to do so. He is telling a lie against Me in his saying that I will not recreate him as I created him for the first time; and his absusing Me in his saying that Allah has begotten a son (or children), while I am As-Samad. Who begets not, nor was He begotten, and there is none like or co-equal or comparable unto Me”.[6]

________________Footnotes:

[1] Al-Bukhari[2] Ref. Para 53, Page 70, The Gospel of Barnabas”. Pub. Aisha Bawani Waqaf-Karachi[3] Ref. Para 95, Page 121, The Gospel of Barnabas”.[4] Our assumption of two events out of one Cause is based upon the scientific reason that action and reaction are equal but appropriate, which is also supported by Quranic revelations about Creation in Pairs. For details please see author’s article “DIRAC and Quran’s Theory of Creation in Pairs, published 1987, Holy Quran Research Foundation Islamabad”.[5] For details please see “Talash-e-Haqeeqat”. “In search of Reality” by the same author.[6] Sahih Al-Bukhari 6/4975 O.D.499 translated by Taqi-ud-Din and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, The Noble Quran, Darussalam – Riyadh).